Do analog RGB LEDs and Feather M0 Express play well together

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onespeedonly
 
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Do analog RGB LEDs and Feather M0 Express play well together

Post by onespeedonly »

Hello good people. My apologies if the answers I’m after are in a previous post but I have searched this forum and am struggling to find a definitive yes or no. I’m new to electronics, am learning as I go, and that little blue smoke dude, Sparky, seems very comfortable on my workbench. If there are answers elsewhere a gentle nudge in that direction would be welcomed.

I am working on a project involving measuring the color of two seperate single RGB LEDs and mimicking their colors on two seperate strings of analog RGB LEDs. Specifically the Adafruit RGB LED weatherproof flexi-strip - 30 LED/m PRODUCT ID: 285. I have a 2meter strip that I will split into two one meter strips.

The project is to take the electronics from a Disney Made With Magic ear hat, use two Adafruit RGB Color Sensor with IR filter and White LED - TCS34725 PRODUCT ID: 1334 to read the color of each ear, and display those colors with the LED strips which will be attached to a backpack for my wife. I have an Adafruit TCA9548A I2C Multiplexer PRODUCT ID: 2717 to handle addressing both TCS34725 color sensors.

I planned to handle the logic with an Adafruit Feather M0 Express - Designed for CircuitPython - ATSAMD21 Cortex M0 PRODUCT ID: 3403 powered with a 3.7v lipo battery, and power the LEDs separately with an 8xAA battery pack. Will I be ok with this setup or will I get into trouble with too low a signal voltage from the Feather into the 12v LEDs?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can provide.

Regards,

Daniel

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adafruit_support_carter
 
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Re: Do analog RGB LEDs and Feather M0 Express play well toge

Post by adafruit_support_carter »

In general, this should work. The one key item you are not mentioning is a power transistor. Actually 3, one for each color channel. This is mentioned briefly on the product page:
Use any NPN or N-channel MOSFET (although the big powerful kind is good for a large strip) and PWM the inputs for color-mixing.
For more details about how to actually wire it all up, check out the guide:
https://learn.adafruit.com/rgb-led-strips/overview
And then you can control the transistors with the Feather in the same manner as the guide shows for an Arduino UNO.

This guide might also be useful:
https://learn.adafruit.com/pulse-room/overview

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onespeedonly
 
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Re: Do analog RGB LEDs and Feather M0 Express play well toge

Post by onespeedonly »

Thank you adafruit_support_carter! I did forget to mention the MOSFETs. I do already have them. Thank you too for the links. I had seen the pulse room one before but had forgotten about it.

Thank you again,

Daniel

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